Malcolm Dawson writes…..More of the same from Gus today in his e-mail to M Salut and the rest of the world. It’s another case of cut and paste as the pundits were proved right for once. “This game has 0-0 written all over it” they said and that’s how it finished up. That’s five points dropped against two of the teams in the bottom half. Looking on the bright side other results seem to be going our way and 14th place is a lot better than where we were this time last year but we are still only 4 points above the relegation zone. Those five points might have only seen us two places higher but with a nine point margin. How much more comfortable that would be! Gus, as his job description requires looks for the positives. The transfer window will soon be open. We await its effect with interest. No doubt our Head Coach will be doing the same. Not to worry – it’s only Man City next.

ASTON VILLA O SUNDERLAND O

Jake captures the Bard, with thanks to Owen Lennox

Dear Colin,

It feels very much like we’ve lost two points today as the game was there to take. We tried, there’s nobody can say that we didn’t try as we were constantly pushing forward, but we just didn’t find the back of the net. We were just missing a quality moment – something similar to what Adam Johnson has done for is in the last two games – but it just didn’t happen for us.

Jordi [Gomez] went close right at the end, but at the moment it’s just not going for us. We must keep believing and keep improving on what we do. We are difficult to play against and we’ve kept a number of clean sheets; these are all positive things that we can take.

We should have made more of the extra man but we didn’t; the effort was there but we just couldn’t manage to make more of it.

About malcolm

Born in Hetton le Hole, deputy editor Malcolm Dawson's first game at Roker Park was the three all draw with Leicester City at the beginning of the 64-65 season. Having spent more than thirty years living in the East Midlands, he was Chairman and Information Officer of the Heart of England Branch of the Supporters' Association but has now returned to live in County Durham.